The Blantyre Explosion

Strawbs - The Blantyre Explosion

By Clyde's bonny banks
As I sadly did wander
Among the coal slag heaps
As evening drew nigh,
I spied a fair maiden
A-weeping and wailing
Weeping and wailing
With many a sigh.

I stepped up beside her
And thus I addressed her:
"Pray tell me fair maid
Of your trouble and pain."
Sobbing and sighing,
She sadly did answer:
"Johnny Murphy, kind sir,
Was my true lover's name."

Twenty-one years of age,
Full of youth and good looking,
To work down the mines
To High Blantyre he came.
The wedding was fixed
All the guests were invited
That calm summers evening
Young Johnny was slain.

The explosion was heard,
All the women and children
With pale anxious faces
They haste to the mine.
When the news was made known,
The hills rang with their moaning,
Three-hundred-and-ten
Young miners were killed

Now husbands and wives
And sweethearts and brothers,
That Blantyre explosion
They'll never forget;
And all you young miners
That hear my sad story,
Shed a tear for the victims
Who are laid to their rest.